The Chemistry of Life

Description

Biochemistry has been at the centre of a vast expansion of biological understanding. This work looks at the methods and finds which unify one's knowledge of the mechanism of life: biochemical theories approach questions of the origins of life on earth, and biochemical techniques help to explain the interactions of viruses with their hosts and to tailor-make the vital drugs in the pharmacologist's armoury. The pace of biochemical research shows no sign of slackening, from the determination of the structures of the complex molecules of life to the myriad of chemical reactions that drive the workings of the cell. At the end of the 20th century, biochemists are beginning to discover where individual molecules are located within the cell, how cells of different organs and organisms resemble and differ, how a specialized biochemistry underlies the workings of brain and muscles, and how a co-ordinated series of reactions results in the development of the cell and the organism. This edition includes developments in DNA and protein synthesis, cell regulation and immunology, and reflections on their social and medical implications.

Steven Rose is Professor of Biology and Director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University. THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE (1966) was his first book. Since then he has written many others, including, in Penguin, NOT IN OUR GENES (1984) and LIFELINES (1997). He won the 1993 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize for THE MAKING OF MEMORY.